“Third quarter e-commerce spending grew 13 percent from a year ago, and although that marks a pretty healthy growth rate, it also represents a slight deceleration from the prior quarter,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Other macroeconomic indicators also suggested relative softness in discretionary spending, which offers some cause for concern as we head into the holiday season. Although there was evidence of slightly diminished consumer confidence in Q3, a more optimistic take is that increased outlays on large purchases such as new homes and automobiles may have temporarily squeezed other discretionary consumer spending. That said, the trend could still spell a challenging holiday season for retailers this year – particularly given the highly compressed calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which contains six fewer shopping days than last year and is the shortest shopping season since 2002. Nonetheless, we are confident that the growth rate in online spending will once again far exceed that in bricks and mortar stores, reflecting the ongoing channel shift to e-commerce.”

Webinar Series: State of the U.S. Online Retail Economy through Q3 2013Join Gian Fulgoni and Andrew Lipsman, VP of Marketing & Insights, as they present an update of the state of the U.S. online retail economy through Q3 2013 in a live webinar on Wednesday, November 13 from 2-3 p.m. EST / 1-2 p.m. CST / 11-12 p.m. PST. Featured content includes content sections covering mobile/multi-platform commerce trends and the 2013 holiday e-commerce season preview.

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